


Forever Renewed

by mielipieli



Category: Batgirl (Comics), Batman (Comics), Teen Titans (Comics), Titans (Comics)
Genre: Background CassHarper, F/F, M/M, Nightwing!Steph, Psst! People are happily married here. Don't tell DC or they'll force me to write a Flashpoint, background TimKon - Freeform, lots of additional characters, more snapshots than continuous story, some won't be important until later chapters
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-17
Updated: 2018-09-20
Packaged: 2019-07-13 17:29:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,082
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16022597
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mielipieli/pseuds/mielipieli
Summary: When Dick's years of vigilantism catch up with him in the form of chronic joint pain, he gives the Nightwing mantle to the person who deserves it the most: Stephanie Brown.Future story featuring Batman!Cass, Irey and Mari West-Grayson, Batwoman!Harper and many more.





	1. Becoming Nightwing

**Author's Note:**

> Btw the costume I'm talking about for Steph here is the one we see in the Batgirl series from 2009.

 

The door opened exactly 3 seconds after Steph had knocked on it. She probably shouldn’t be surprised anymore since  _ speedster _ . 

 

“Hey, come on in!”, Wally smiled at her. He looked tired and worried.

 

Steph hugged him: “How is Dick doing today?”, she asked as she released him. 

 

“Better? The same?”, Wally rubbed his face. “I don’t know. He’s in the study.”

 

Steph put a hand on his shoulder in passing but didn’t really know what she was supposed to do. So, instead, she just went to the study and knocked on the door.

 

“Come in”, Dick called. 

 

Steph opened the door and looked around. There were a lot of papers flying around plus several mugs and empty plates. Dick was still sitting in the wheelchair he’d been using for the past two weeks. 

 

“Hi”, Steph said standing in the doorway. 

 

Dick smiled at her. He looked a bit like Tim did when he had been working on a single case for too long but the smile was actually reaching his eyes. Steph felt herself relax a bit. 

 

“Come on in. Sit down”, he gestured to the unused office chair that had been rolled to the side. Dick maneuvered the wheelchair a bit to the side, so Steph could sit at the table.

 

“What did you want to talk to me about?”, she asked once she had settled into the chair.

 

“Well, I’m retiring and I know you’ve been thinking about making your own ID and giving Batgirl to…”

 

Steph interrupted: “Hold on, you’re retiring?”

 

Dick threw her a look: “Steph, I’ve been doing this for twenty five years, I fell off a building because of joint pain and Leslie told me if I don’t stop now, I’m  going to have none of my original joints in five years.”   
  


“What…”, Steph really wasn’t sure which question she wanted to ask first. “Who did you tell about this?”

 

“Just Wally. I wanted to talk to you first.”

 

Steph’s brain blanked out. She wasn’t really sure why he wanted to talk to her  _ first _ .

 

Dick smiled at her: “I want to offer Nightwing to you.”

 

“Why me?”, Steph asked. If anything, she would have thought Nightwing would go to Damian when Dick was through with it.

 

“Has Kara ever told you about the Kryptonian legend of Nightwing and Flamebird?”   
  


God, couldn’t he be at least a little less cryptic? Steph remained silent.

 

“Ask her about it and then come back to me.”

 

* * *

 

Steph called Kara that evening and went back to Dick and Wally’s apartment the next day.

 

“So?”, Dick asked with a grin on his face that said he knew her answer already.

 

“So, I want to talk about costume design.”

 

Dick’s grin widened: “I’m all ears.” He pushed aside some of the papers and pulled out a sketch pad and a few pencils. 

 

Steph dropped into the seat next to him and watched him draw a female silhouette: “I’ve always wanted finger stripes...”

 

“Who doesn’t.”

 

“...and I think I want to keep some kind of Bat.”   
  


“You got something in mind?”, Dick asked holding out a pencil.

 

“An idea. I don’t know if it’ll work.”

 

“Let’s try it.”

 

When Wally knocked on the door a few hours later, Dick and Steph had already gotten to a pretty good design. They had sketched out the basic design on paper first and then scanned it so they could use the costume design software Tim had developed at some point. The door opened carefully without either of them answering and Wally apparently not wanting to disturb their work. 

 

Dick’s head immediately turned to the door and he grinned at Wally: “Come in, we’ve got to show you the design.”

 

Wally was behind them in a second, the door slamming shut in his wake: “Oh, wow. That’s really cool.”

 

* * *

 

“Tam, I need to tell you about something”, Steph called out as she threw her bag down next to the door and pushed her shoes off her feet

 

“I’m in the kitchen, babe.”

 

Steph jogged the few steps and saw Tam spoon Nutella from a jar. She let out a loud laugh: “Girl, that’s not healthy.”

 

“Hey, fuck you. I had to yell at Tim today.”

 

“Did you have to or did you just want to?”

 

Tam snorted: “You know, I don’t really know but I think it’s both.”

 

“You got a second spoon there?”, Steph asked.

 

Tam held one out and Steph grinned at her, then took it and gave Tam a peck on her cheek.

 

“What do you need to tell me about?”, Tam asked once Steph had gotten around to eating her first spoon.

 

“Dick’s giving me Nightwing.”

 

Tam grinned at her: “Are you serious?”

 

“Yeah! We spent the whole day designing my costume. Wait, I’ll show it to you…” 

 

Steph threw her spoon in the sink and sprinted to the couch table she’d left her notebook on the night before. On the way back she forced herself to walk much more slowly as to not pull a Tim and break her hand  _ with _ her laptop.

 

When Steph reentered the kitchen, Tam was sitting on one of the bar chairs and had pulled the other one out for Steph. She waited patiently as Steph searched for the email with the design and opened it. 

 

Tam didn’t say anything for the first five minutes. She threw Steph a questioning look once to determine whether she could currently deal with losing power over her own computer, then pulled said computer closer and looked at the costume from all angles.

 

After the five minutes, she started shooting questions at Steph: “No cowl? Won’t your hair get in the way?”

 

“I’ve been thinking of maybe cutting it. It’s literally always in the way.”

 

“No symbol on the back?”

 

“We had a few versions with one but decided it looked better without. I can ask Dick to send a few of them over, though.”

 

“No, I think it looks good this way”, Tam went silent for another moment. “It’s a beautiful design. Have you thought about the ramifications of not having a cape, though?”

 

Steph smiled: “I’ll train in the new suit for a month before I use it on the street.”

 

“Good, I like you in one piece…”, Tam threw her a meaningful look: “I also like my sister in one piece.”

 

Steph instinctively pulled up her shoulders to hide between them: “You know I only got her to stop the first time around because I promised to train her when she turns sixteen.”

 

“I _ know.  _ I just wish she wasn’t so insistent on becoming a vigilante. Babe, I worry about you and your siblings every night. It’s hard enough to worry about  _ you _ and  _ Tim.  _ When I got the call because of Dick, I thought: ‘This is it. My girlfriend just died.’”

 

Steph pulled Tam close. Tam buried her head in Steph’s shoulder and they both just sat there for awhile without either of them saying a single word. 

 

* * *

 

When Steph and Tam walked into the main living room in Wayne manor for family night, most of the others were already there. Jason was sitting on one of the big chairs that easily fit two people, Cass was on the floor in front of the couch with Tim giving her a massage. Duke was in a chair on the other side of the couch asking Jason about some kind of weapon. 

 

Steph had already seen Bruce and Alfred in the kitchen, still gathering snacks and drinks for the evening and Damian would probably show up in a few minutes. Dick and Wally always tended to be late, so no surprise that they weren’t there yet.

 

Steph snorted: “Where are Harper and Kon?”

 

Cass opened one eye and looked at her: “ _ Harper has a case she needs to take care of. She might come by later. Kon is in Metropolis.”  _ Her hands moved quickly and then patted the couch next to Tim.

 

Steph followed the offer and sat there. Tam settled down there as well and pulled her feet up, letting her shoes drop to the floor. 

 

“You look... happy”, Cass said after a few moments of looking at Steph from the corner of her eye. 

 

“Yeah.”

 

Cass looked at her a little longer but when Steph didn’t elaborate, she turned back to the front and seemed to focus on Jason and Duke’s conversation. 

 

“Steph?”, Tam asked her quietly. “Are you going to…?” She let herself drift off but Steph knew what she meant.

 

She shook her head: “Not really mine to tell.”

 

Tam wrapped her arm around Steph’s waist and leaned against her.

 

The rest of the family entered the room together about five minutes later. Dick was at the front.

 

“Dick, you’re out of the wheelchair!”, Tim called excitedly.

 

“First day”, Dick said proudly and let himself fall on the couch next to Tam. “Hey, guys.”

 

A round of hellos was heard. Wally took Dick’s crutches, placed them against the wall and then sat down next to him. Once the rest had settled out as well, Tim cleared his throat: “So, what…”   
  


Cass shushed him and gestured to Dick. Everyone turned to look at Dick as if expecting him to grow another nose.

 

Dick took a deep breath: “I’m retiring from being Nightwing.”

 

“Thank god”, Jason burst out before any of the others in the room seemed to process it.

 

Wally let out a laugh. He looked so much more relaxed than he had the week before.

 

Steph felt Tam poke her side and cleared her throat: “I’m going to take over.”


	2. Helping Family

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When Wally gets injured during a rescue mission, Steph makes sure Dick gets to the Watchtower alright.

“Oracle to Nightwing”, Steph heard Babs say on a private channel.

 

She landed on a roof and then pressed the button that switched her off the general one and onto that one: “I’m here O.”

 

“Flash III was injured…”   
  


Steph interrupted her: “I thought it was their night off.”

 

“Flash was called in to deal with a situation that came up. I need you to go wake up Delphi and take him to the Watchtower.”

 

“What happened and how bad is it?”, Steph asked even as she started moving.

 

“There was a hurricane in the Pacific and we needed to get people off a few islands. I don’t have a lot of information on what happened to Flash, yet. He’s in surgery. ”

 

Oh, surgery. Those were never fun with speedsters. Steph had once helped out with realigning a broken bone. They’d had to re-break it several times before they managed to get it completely fixed. And that was while the speedster in question had been conscious since there weren’t really any narcotics that could keep a speedster under.

 

“I’ll call you when we’re ready to be transported up.”

 

“I’m also sending one of the others to stay with the girls. Oracle out”, Babs said already sounding like she was distracted by something else. 

 

She probably was. Especially with a rescue mission going on for which Wally had been called on in one of the rare nights off. Well, nights off were an interesting concept with most Justice Leaguers since most of them operated during the day. A few years ago they had started a new thing, however, that everyone got a night every month when they wouldn’t be called unless they were definitely needed. Yeah, kind of vague but it worked. 

 

Dick and Wally always made sure that their nights off fell together so they could have monthly family nights with their daughters Mari and Irey. Steph wasn’t really sure how both of them managed to have children from old relationships - both of them with superpowers no less - but they were probably the cutest children she knew.

 

Mari was Dick’s daughter with Kori, who he’d only learned about when Mari had already been five. Steph didn’t really know how she had ended up in Dick’s care but here she was, ten years old and capable of flying as well as producing starbursts.

 

Irey was Wally’s child with Linda. Linda and Wally had dated for about three years and Linda had found out she was pregnant shortly after the breakup. Irey had been with Dick and Wally since basically the very start. Linda had, at the time, been a correspondent in Iran and neither of them had thought it sensible for her to raise a child there. Irey spent many of the holidays with Linda, sometimes joined by Mari, who Linda had never treated any differently from Irey. 

 

The two were currently 14 and 12 respectively and managed to contain their puberty to Dick and Wally - probably so they wouldn’t lose their aunts’ and uncles’ affection as if they ever could. It was already 3 AM, so Steph hoped both of them would be sound asleep and would only learn about what had happened once everything had calmed down a bit. Steph doubted it. 

 

It took her about ten minutes to get to the apartment. Steph carefully entered through the balcony window and stepped into the living room. She quickly checked whether the girls’ rooms’ doors were closed - they were - and opened the door to Dick and Wally’s bedroom. Dick was sound asleep, stretched over the entire bed as if relishing in the fact that he had so much space he could take up. Steph’s heart throbbed. 

 

As soon as she took one step into the room, Dick shot up and looked at her: “Who’s hurt?”, he asked quickly already wide awake.

 

“It’s Wally. He’s in surgery on the Watchtower. One of the others will be here in a moment to watch the girls.”

 

Dick practically jumped out of bed and hurried to the bathroom. Steph waited patiently in the doorway until there was the sound of someone landing on the balcony. She took a few steps into the living room to see who it was. It was Tim. He shot her a smile that didn’t reach his eyes as he hurried past her to the guest room where all of them had a change of clothes and a place to hide their costumes. Once again, Steph stood there on her own. She took a deep breath. 

 

Dick emerged from the bedroom about half a minute later in jeans, a simple t shirt and a sweatshirt, with his hair as messy as when she’d woken him up and still in the process of putting on a pair of socks.

 

“Mask?”, Steph asked in a low voice.

 

Dick looked like he was about to punch himself.

 

“Second drawer on the right?” Steph knew that’s where Dick kept his spare mask but it felt right to ask for confirmation so Dick would know he didn’t have to worry about it. 

 

After having gotten it from the hallway, Steph handed it to Dick. He easily put it on.

 

“Anything else?” He didn’t look like he could actually think through anything. “If something comes up later, we’ll deal with it.”

 

Tim exited the guest room just as Steph was about to propose calling Babs to transport them up. Tim hushed forward and wrapped Dick into a hug. Dick practically melted into it. For about two seconds before he started tensing up again and Tim gently let go of him.

 

“I’ll call you if anything happens”, he assured Dick. 

 

Dick smiled at him: “Thank you.”

* * *

Donna was sitting on a couch in the waiting room when they walked in. Her right arm was bandaged and she looked pretty tired. She got up and gave Dick a short hug.

 

“Are you okay?”, Dick asked.

 

Donna nodded: “It’s nothing, really.” She rubbed her face. “A building collapsed onto Wally and me. He’s still in surgery but J’onn said he’s probably going to be alright.”

 

Dick let out a slow breath and wrapped Donna up in another hug. This time it was a bit longer and Donna’s exhaustion seemed to radiate off her in waves. Steph kind of felt like she was intruding.

 

She cleared her throat: “Can I get you guys something to eat or drink? I sure could use a cup of coffee.”

 

“A coffee would be great”, Dick said with a soft sort of smile.

 

“I’m fine, thank you. I got myself a cup of tea a while ago”, Donna gestured to a cup on one of the tables.

 

“I’ll be back in a few minutes, then.”

 

As the door slid shut behind her, Steph almost felt a weight drop off her. It always felt weird to be with any of the original Titans. They were kind and friendly and had never ever said anything of the sort but Steph still felt like she was intruding upon the Nightwing mantle. It had only been six months, after all. 

 

The Watchtower seemed strangely quiet. It probably always was at this time of night but it still didn’t feel right. Too few people. It took Steph until she had finished making the coffee to realize that there was probably someone on monitor duty. She decided to at least say hi. 

 

The door slid open to reveal Arsenal staring intently at satellite images of islands - Steph assumed those were the ones that were going to be hit by the hurricane. “No, that’s fine. Second building to the right.” He listened to someone on the other side. “Okay.” Roy sighed as the call disconnected and slumped over slightly.

 

“Hey”, Steph said as carefully as possible.

 

Roy still turned around in alarm, then relaxed when he saw her: “Any updates on Wally?”

 

Steph shook her head: “I was just getting a cup of coffee for D and me. I can take over for you, though, and you can join Donna and him in the waiting room.”

 

“Are you sure?”, Roy asked in that longing tone of voice that made it clear that there was nothing he wanted more.

 

Steph smiled: “Just give me an update and I’ll hand you D’s cup.”

 

Roy turned back to the screens and Steph stepped closer: “The rescue mission is still ongoing though it’s mostly just a search for missing persons at this point. I have notes here. On that screen”, he pointed to the upper left, “is some info for and from BC and GA, who are planning a raid on a warehouse. They might need some satellite images etc. Hospitals are keeping us updated on who still has free capacity.”

 

Steph looked the screens over and found that there was nothing else that didn’t immediately make sense to her on there: “Great. Here’s the cup. I’ll see you later.”

 

Roy shot her a thankful smile and took the cup. As she settled in the ‘command chair’, she heard the door slide shut behind her, took out her comm link and put on the headset.

* * *

“Black Canary to Watchtower”, Mia’s voice came out of the headset after a while of answering simple requests and the ever present question about where Arsenal had gone.

 

“Hey, BC. Nightwing here.”

 

“Oh, hey, N. Where did Arse go?”, Mia asked.

 

“He’s in the waiting room with Troia and Delphi.”

 

Mia was silent for a moment: “Delphi is old-Nightwing’s new ID, right?”

 

Steph laughed. It felt kind of weird for Dick to be called old. Though, he was kind of getting there, at least in her opinion as a humble 27-year-old. “Exactly.”

 

“Tell me when you know Flash’s condition, kay? Oh, and we didn’t actually need anything. GA and I decided to do the raid on another day since there’s some unpredictable activity here. Just, you know, nothing to worry about here.”

 

“I’ll add it to the notes and call you as soon as I get word of anything.”

 

“And you have to come to the tower more often. We need more blondes. Cassie and I aren’t enough.”

 

Steph snorted: “I’ll try. It’s been a bit busy in Gotham lately what with OG-B easing BB into the Batman gig and OG-Bwoman retiring completely.”

 

“Sometimes I’m very angry when I know what fellow supers are talking about. Bwoman doesn’t even have less syllables than Batwoman. What the hell, N?”

 

“I spend too much time with Red.”

 

“Oh, definitely. Bats in general are a problem”, Mia chuckled at herself.

 

“Hey! That’s not nice!” A notification popped up on the screen. “Need to go, BC. Talk to you soon.”

 

Steph hung up and accepted the new call: “Watchtower here, Nightwing speaking.”

 

“This is Wonder Woman. Wonder Girl and I are done with our sector. Do any of the others require support?”

 

Steph checked the box with the status updates but nothing had changed since she’d started talking to Mia: “Most sectors have already signed off. Sectors 3 and 8, that’s the Flashes and Lanterns respectively, are still going but they’re on their last look through. It would probably be best if you checked in with the government officials in person one more time. They haven’t sent any more requests but there might be something else they could use help with.”

 

“Good idea”, Diana declared, then her tone grew soft: “Any news from Flash?”

 

“Not yet. I’ll send a message once I hear something.”

 

“Thank you. Wonder Girl told me to tell you ‘hi’.”

 

Steph decided not to ask herself how Cassie knew it was her: “Say hi back from me, would you?”

 

“Of course”, the line closed. 

 

Steph took a deep breath. She was pretty sure there was nothing else she had to do and nothing else going on in general but it felt like she was missing a million different things. She went through her mental checklist and arrived at the conclusion that everything was taken care of for now.

* * *

When Roy’s relief came in two hours later, Steph had been talking to Cassie on the phone for 38 minutes. The relief was Kyle Rayner who listened patiently to Steph’s briefing. She honestly loved the report-skill Bruce had drilled into all of them years ago. She had hated how he expected them to answer with ten second to five minute briefings every time he told them to “report” but she could really see its uses by now.

 

When working with other heroes, she often noticed herself getting annoyed at how inaccurate their briefings were. They tended to leave important details out and leave unimportant details in. That simply didn’t happen with any of the Bats. well, most of the older heroes didn’t have that problem either but that was through sheer practice and in many cases a bit of Bat-influence.

 

When she had finished, Kyle nodded, asked a few questions and then sent her back on her way to the medbay.

* * *

The waiting room was empty when Steph got there. Instead, the door to the medbay was open and laughter was filtering outside. Steph relaxed as she stood in the doorway and looked around the room.

 

Wally was sitting upright with a huge grin and was holding Dick’s hand, who was sitting on a chair next to him. Donna was leaning on the foot of his bed shaking her head with a soft smile. Garth stood behind her with his arms crossed and a serious yet bemused look on his face. Roy was laughing with his head thrown back. He sat on a chair and had his feet were lying on Wally’s bed having discarded his shoes on the floor.

 

Steph took out her phone and snapped a picture before she made herself noticed: “Hey!”

 

They all turned to her with half smiles stuck on their faces like she’d said something incredibly amusing but they wanted an explanation. 

 

“How are you?”, she asked Wally when none of them said anything. 

 

Wally held up a thumb: “I’ll be right as rain in a couple of hours. Just had to get a few bones out of my organs.”

 

“That’s not what happened”, Dick said firmly but he was grinning. “It was one bone. One.”

 

Wally leaned towards Dick with a grin: “Ah, but it was in my organs.”

 

“In one organ, Wally”, Dick corrected him again and pushed Wally down with a hand on his face.

 

Donna let out a breathless laugh and looked at Steph: “He’s fine. He can go home in a couple of hours and should be all healed up within a week.”

 

Steph nodded at her thankfully: “That sounds good. I’m going back home. Do you want me to check on Tim and the girls?”   
  


“No, that’s fine”, Dick replied. “We’ll call them in a few minutes. Thank you.” He sent her one of those smiles that was tired and happy and very very thankful.    



End file.
